What does being shut in due to COVID-19 look like through the eyes of an avid reader?
For context, I hate e-books, it’s simply not real. You can’t feel the real feel of paper, cannot smell a fresh book, impossible to read without damaging your eyes due to blue light and much more.

first week, amidst the looming crisis and shutdown of the entirety of the commercial side of the country, with no school or tuition, there was one ray of hope. The fact that now I have unlimited time to read and go through books. Something that was restricted due to the pressure of studying before, finishing a book almost every 2 days, I was not ready for the realisation to come.

One month has gone by, I have finally reached the problem, I am out of books. After reading over 20 books within a month, I am stuck in a dilemma where I am not sure what to do next. I was all out of options, the library near my house was closed, book shops were closed, and I hated reading books online. After pondering over it for days, i made the decision to re-read books. So I caved in and picked up each of the books I had read and I read it again, the second read turned into a third, third into a fourth. before I knew it, I had read my favorite book 13 times within a few months. Now this arose a question in me, how differently do I feel about this book now that I have read it so many times?

Here is a comparison.
The first read felt like a journey, a journey through distant lands and discovering something new with each passing page, coming across an unexpected turn of events that changes the entire perspective of how i saw the book. All of these new revelations, new plot twists brought with them an excitement, the emotions were pure and new. You could say that the reader was a canvas, waiting to be painted upon by the experience of the new book, transforming into a complete art when finishing it.

And then there is the 13th read, this one felt like I was coming back to something close to me, something that felt like home. Even though this was a familiar sight, there was still room for a new experience and delight. I came to the realisation that even though I know what the major plot of this book is, the difference was how i had grown throughout my reads, how I perceived the meaning behind the book and how the small details made me excited with every single read.

-Arindam Gupta